Customer Reviews

Sleeping Life

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When plain, unattractive Rhoda Comfrey is found stabbed to death in a field outside Kingsmarkham, it's business as usual for Chief Inspector Wexford and his hilariously prudish sidekick, Burden. This convoluted case is even more frustrating than usual, however; virtually no one, aside from an indifferent relative, seems to remember the victim, and Wexford finds himself going around in circles in his desperate search for even the slightest of leads. His only clue is a man named Grenville West, who proves as elusive and enigmatic as Rhoda Comfrey herself.

The most intriguing mystery here, aside from whodunit, is the truth about Rhoda Comfrey's double life. Wexford arrives at his solution through the same combination of wit, intuition, and instinct (as opposed to straightforward, by-the-book detection) he displays in all his cases. True to form, Ruth Rendell delivers a positively stunning twist at the end, and of course, it caught me totally off guard. Unfortunately, the surprise revelation has practically zero emotional resonance. It's easy to admire Rendell's typically first-rate plotting, but her manipulations here lack the psychological dimension of her best work. And say what you will, but I didn't buy the killer's motive for a minute. A corpse should have a reason for being a corpse; even Agatha Christie understood that.

I almost always love Rendell's spare, understated prose, but for some reason, this book is neither as sharply written nor as witty as it should be. There's surprisingly little of the narrative tension and momentum so evident in SHAKE HANDS FOREVER (still, for my money, the best Inspector Wexford mystery). Instead, A SLEEPING LIFE has the same slack pace and implausible character motivation so evident in SOME LIE AND SOME DIE (still, for my money, the worst Inspector Wexford mystery).

Not a bad book--Rendell is practically incapable of that--but far from being the great one it should have been.

Many critics praise Ruth Rendall for her psychological insight into the characters she presents. I have never understood this; from my own point of view, her psychological insight usually consists of inconsistencies and uncertain motivations--the latter of which most often arise from a vaguely drawn plot that seldom has any "mystery" to it at all.

Clearly, I am not among Rendell's fans. Still, if I were hard pressed to recommend a Rendell novel, I would most likely recommend A SLEEPING LIFE--for although very typical of her work in terms of character, it is indeed a reasonably well structured mystery with a double-folded solution that few will completely anticipate.

The story concerns Rhoda Comfrey, an unattractive woman of fifty years whose body is found twice-stabbed along a path. But when Inspector Wexford attempts to trace Comfrey's movements, he is unexpectedly stymied: although her bed-ridden father resides in the area, she herself does not--and although it is generally understood that she lives in London, no one has any idea where, nor does an appeal through the press bring forth her address, her occupation, or even any one in all of England who has seen her, much less actually knows her.

As the days pass in mounting frustration, Inspector Wexford gradually finds himself also drawn into the somewhat suspicious absence of noted novelist Grenville West, who may or may not know Comfrey and who may or may not have suddenly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Is there any connection--or is it just another wild goose chase so typical of this particular case?

In spite of my general dislike of Rendell's work, I found myself quite caught up in this particular title, which shows Rendell at her stylistic best and working with intriguing characters and a well-organized story. If you must read a Ruth Rendell novel, this would be a good choice.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rendell is a difficult writer to pin down; while, working as she does within the mystery/crime genre, her books inhabit different areas of that particular literary country. The Wexford series has always been best classified as police procedural, while the othe books are more psychological, plotted less closely along conventional crime novel lines. Within the Wexford series, Rendell has of late been injecting a lot of social commentary into her books and the plotting - Rendell fans must admit that her puzzles are easier to figure out than most - has fallen off. Her best crafted Wexford mysteries (as opposed to "novels" or "literature," which came a bit later) were from the 1970s (here, 1978). Rendell's best, most prominent characteristics are all here; the emphasis on psychological makeup and motive, the ability to draw characters and relationships with only a few lines of dialogue or interior monologue, the presence of details that few other writers put to such good use in delineating said characters, the use of dead ends, mistakes, and wrong assumptions and guesses by Wexford in the exposition. While Rendell is outstanding at what she does, not all crime fiction fans like her stuff. One would do worse than to begin here to find out where you stand. If you like this, moving on to other Wexford books, or the darker, non-series classics like "A Dark-Adapted Eye" is only a small step. If not, forget it.

For the most part Ruth Rendell's early Wexford novels hold up fairly well, especially for those of us who were around when they were first published thirty years ago. Sometimes, however, changing social mores render her "surprise" endings a good deal less shocking, and therefore much easier to guess, as is the case here.

She drops so many clues that the "mystery" is pretty easy to guess about halfway through. That makes slogging through the last half, waiting for Reg to twig to the solution, a fairly tedious exercise. Excellent writing and interesting characters go a long way here, but they can't quite make up for the obvious nature of the plot.

Although first published in 1964 this book is still completely readable today. A Sleeping Life is an Inspector Wexford mystery which deals with the investigation into the stabbing of a middle-aged woman whilst visiting her ill relative in Kingsmarkham. Although he knows her name, the womans life away from Kingsmarkham remains a mystery which haunts Wexford. There are many twists and turns as Wexford comes nearer to discovering what drove the woman to hide the truth about herself. The conclusion, while perhaps not as shocking today as it was then, is nicely done.

As usual Rendell has created a diverse range of interesting, and in some cases psychologically-flawed, characters. The scenes I enjoyed most were those with Sylvia, Wexford's daughter. She has left her husband after becoming interested in Woman's Lib, and has moved back in with her parents, Wexford and Dora. I was particularly amused by a piece of dialogue where Sylvia cries:
"By God, my life is more his than it is mine!"
(Referring to her husband, Neil). It really does point out how gender roles in the past have stiffled women - thank goodness that times have changed! However, I liked the way that Rendell also gave Neil's point of view about his wife's views so it wasn't one sided.

Overall A Sleeping Life is great. There are plenty of opportunities for Wexford to use his dry, clever wit. The plot is solid and there is a good twist at the end. The sub-plot is entertaining and the characters are unusual.

JoAnne

Although I figured out the curious twist of the book early on, I still read it, fascinated by Ms. Rendell's skill. I am catching up with some older Inspector Wexford mysteries that I have missed over the years, and so came to "A Sleeping Life". Ms. Rendell is a master in creating a world where nothing is what it seems, and this book does this marvelously. It is different too because Wexford has an unidentified corpse for over half the book, and he is getting more and more frustrated as he goes up one blind alley after another. But a word and its meaning turn it around for him, and he manages to untangle the web, and discover the killer. If you are a mystery lover, than you cannot miss any one of Ms. Rendell's books. (And she has a lot of them).

This is one of Inspector Wexford's most baffling and gripping cases. Highly recommended for its orginality and plot twists. Very worthwhile.

This is a lot of fun to read. Chief Inspector Wexford's grandson wants to see a water rat swimming. The domestic lives of Wexford, his wife, his daughter and her sons circle about the mystery plot, giving the book charm.

Wexford is called at home when the body of a middle-aged woman is discovered. Wexford has lively intelligence and a zest for life. His creator describes him as an ugly man.

The victim of the murder is Rhoda Comfrey and her aunt is a Mrs. Crown. One of the mysteries surrounding the death of Miss Comfrey is her address. It seems no one, including her father, her aunt, and an ancient neighbor, seems to know it.

Wexford and his police companion Mike Burden hope that a newspaper account of the death will bring in some leads. After a lapse of time it is surmised that the dead woman lived in London under an assumed name. The ancient neighbor in Kingsmarkham advises that Rhoda won a substantial amount of money in a lottery pool.

This police procedural is engaging.

I can't give this a tip top rating for Ruth Rendell, but it definitely grabs hold and keeps one going until the rather convoluted ending. Inspecto Wexford's frustration in his investigation here is catching, and I found myself frustrated at times as one apparant red herring after another is presented to us. I give the author credit for making a victim we never actually meet such a fascinating subject.

Ruth Rendell is my favorite author - in fact, her books are the only ones I read. I've probably read 90% of her books. I read her books over and over again because they always fascinate me. I tried a Patterson novel recently and thought it so bad that I threw it against the wall.

A Sleeping Life is one of my favorites. Ruth writes true mysteries, you think something is going on and then realize that it isn't what you think at all. She layers her stories, you go along and all of a sudden, something new is revealed. This happens over and over, all the way to the end. It's sort of like being in Inspector Wexford's head.

She is considered by many critics the best mystery writer in the world and yet very few people I run into, know of her. Some of her writings have made it to PBS - but they do not give a good representation of her writing and I think this is because there is a lot of narrative in her books and it is hard to show this in film.